This one was a bit of a disappointment. The story starts when two teenage girls,Val and June, decide to set out in a raft. While following the shore line in their raft,something happens. Val,returns from the river,June doesn't. This one event begins the story,the characters and their actions form the rest. Sort of a chain reaction.The characters start out with little depth.They don't evolve much. Unless you count teenage angst,teenage love,teenage self doubt,and narcissism at a level that only a teenage girl can achieve. The form and technique are present in the writing,but I felt there was little follow-through. It is just more of the same,the author was trying for a girl's version of a `coming of age' novel. By the time you are about half-way through it really starts to wear thin.I will say the author had a pretty good handle on the teenage girl mind set.There are other characters,an alcoholic music teacher,the owner of the neighborhood bodega and of course,a boy.The story-line is pretty straight forward, nothing to surprise or, amaze.I realize this type of novel is subjective,maybe it depends on your own childhood. While I can't say it was the best book I have read lately,it might make a good beach novel.

In Heaven's War you have most of the same characters we first met in Heaven's Shadow. I enjoyed that novel. So I bought the second book. In the first book,we have two earth space vehicles on course to intercept a near earth object (Keanu). What was thought to be just a chunk of rock is really an alien craft. Anyway in this book "Heaven's War" the humans of the space crafts find themselves trying to make some sense of their new home when they are joined by a few hundred more humans that Keanu has scooped up from earth. As it happens,this group consists mostly of the earth based support crew,along with a few loved ones and a dog.To make matters more complicated they discover that the aliens have done this before and that they have company. Alien company,hostile at the best of times and at other times fatal. Here,the details of the different habitats and the aliens living in them are sketchy.Some of it I had to jump over,simply because I had no frame of reference and I found the details given were confusing. The books are well written and the authors were thoughtful enough to provide the reader an illustration of Keanu and it's various habitats and a list of the humans. That helps to some degree. What the head aliens aka the "Architects" want or need from the humans is still not completely known but since the ship seems to be heading back to their home, the humans are faced with even more trials. The next book, "Heaven's Fall's" is the third book in the series,so maybe,all will be explained. For the most part I enjoyed both novels and I am looking forward to reading the third one.

When I bought "The Romanov Conspiracy" I thought I was getting something along the lines of Dan Brown meets Indiana Jones.You know the kind,good guys,bad guys,priceless artifact and things going boom.If I had read the product description close enough I might have realized that it wasn't that type of novel. Except for a chapter or two at the first and a bit at the end,the plot is set in 1918 and the final days of the Romanov family. Of course I knew what I had read in middle school and the bits and pieces since then.But this tale is mostly a love story. It is a well crafted story,a nice blend of historical fact and fiction. I kept busy trying to sort out fact from fiction.The tale spins around Princess Anastasia,the youngest of the Romanov daughters.This story endorses the theory that Anastasia escaped with her life on July 17,1918. She goes into exile with the help of,depending on who tells the story, White Russians,English secret service,the Americans,the Irish or sympathetic guards,loyal household staff etc. There were too many characters for me,while I understand the need,I couldn't remember who worked for who. You have the Red Rebels, the White supporters, Irish spies, English government agents and American agents and a shadowy Brotherhood.There are a lot of opinions, movies and books out on this subject. One thing everybody agrees on is that the Romanov family,some or all, were brutally butchered. There are many strands in this novel and Meade makes a fine effort but what is true and what is not, is up to bigger minds than mine.

A good book and an enjoyable read. What it lacked in plot it made up for in the characters. Or,maybe I should say one character. Abe Teal is a precocious 11 year old boy living in Alvin,Alabama.The story revolves around him,and his views on life,death and grown-ups. He has an opinion on everything from racism to roadkill. The story starts out with the disappearance of a 14 year old girl,eerily similar to the disappearance of another girl,12 years previously. Abe's mom is a cop,and a single parent.She is stressed out by a rebellious daughter and what she sees as her failure to find the missing girls. The plot was thin but this isn't a plot driven novel. If you are looking for a crazed psycho killer novel,this might not fit the bill. This is more like Huckleberry Finn meets Opie from Mayberry. This story is Abe Teal all the way.The crime is really just the background and the stage belongs to Abe and his friend Dewey.These two are priceless,and I chose to overlook the holes in the plot rather than fuss about them.I also chose to overlook the symbolism,the coming of age stereotype and the discussion questions in the back of the book.I just enjoyed the story and went with the flow.

"Let It Burn"isn't the best Alex McKnight novel I have read. Actually I was a bit disappointed in the story.The story started out with Alex getting a courtesy call from his old police Sergeant. One of Alex's old collars is getting out. A man convicted of killing a woman back in the 70`s. Will this guy come looking for revenge. His memory is sketchy,Alex lost his partner around the same time. But his mind is uneasy,so he travels to Detroit,to look up old friends and new. The plot goes from present day, to the past and back to the present again. Maybe it would have been nice for Hamilton to give the chapters a heading, like "Past" and "Present" or something along those lines. (A small annoyance not a big thing.) As always Hamilton has an easy flowing style that makes reading his work a pleasure, but this one missed the mark for me. The story itself wasn't fleshed out,not like his other novels. I found this plot thin with none of the rich detail I have come to expect from this author. As fans of Alex,we learn more about the life he had before Paradise,but if this had been my first Alex Mcknight novel,I wouldn't be in a hurry to read another one.

This was my first C.J. Box novel, I have seen his books but never got around to reading one.I wasn't sure what to expect with "The Highway".I read the book description and it sounded promising. My foremost thought was not to waste my money.I am not a person easily influenced and I have read more than my fair share of serial killer versus cop novels,but this one gave me the creeps.This is one creepy character. He calls himself the Lizard King.And as the title suggests the plot surrounds a highway.An ordinary highway, the same as you would use going to work,or taking a trip. This creep uses it as a `super highway meat market'. Look over the selection and make your choice. It took less than 2 days for me to finish.The plot was well paced and the author gives you no time to get bored. Although I haven't read any of his other novels and can't comment on his style,I thought this one was well written. Everything moved quickly including me turning the pages.I have no complaints with this novel, great read.I got my money's worth with this novel.

The Devil and The River isn't just another story with another killer facing off against another lawman. Ellory writes with one eye on the story and the other on his characters. He reminds me of James Lee Burke and his Sheriff Hackberry Holland character. In a sense the lives of his characters and their development are the story. How life has shaped them,motivated or corrupted them.In this novel you have John Gaines, sheriff of a small town in Mississippi. It's 1974,Gaines a veteran of the Vietnam war,home to care for an ill mother and try to mend his life. In a way this story revolves around war.What it can do to a person's soul as well as the body.There is a killer and a crime,old secrets and lost love, but mainly the reader deals with emotions,actions and the consequences. The story doesn't move at a fast pace but Ellory writes with an easy rhythm. Might not be the best choice for a quick beach read but if you are a Burke fan,then this might be something for you.

Peter James's new book "Dead Man's Time," was, at best,a mediocre Roy Grace novel.Other novels featuring Roy Grace have much more depth to the plot. This one seems weak. There was something missing in this novel compared to his other novels. In "Dead Man's Time,Grace investigates a home invasion of a senior. The home owner is the sister of Gavin Daley. Daley is a man with a shady reputation and an even shadier past.He has spent most of his 90+ years haunted by the events of his childhood.So when his older sister is beaten and left to die,the time has come to right past wrongs. James gives you a multitude of sinister characters and several side plots. As usual,with all his novels James is spot on with his writing and his research. This book missed the mark for me. Maybe it was the side plots, they read more like filler than plot threads. I love this author and his novels so I will wait for the next one.

I liked this novel much better than the "The Yard". Honestly, I didn't see what all the fuss was about. Although "The Black Country" starts out with some of the same characters that were in the first novel,it is a better story and better written. We have Inspector Walter Day and Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith heading up an investigation into the disappearance of a prominent family in the village of Blackhampton.The whole family hasn't disappeared,just the parents and the youngest son,Olivar. Three children from a previous marriage are still on the scene.Day and Hammersmith are holed up at the local inn,awaiting the arrival of Dr.Kingsley.The good Dr is another character from the first novel.He is the forensic member of the team,if you can use the term forensic,it is 1890.I found the novel an easy read and had no trouble getting into the story and the century.The plot was fairly simple.I would have liked to have seen more of a mystery/whodunit. Grecian does give you some interesting characters,a superstitious inn-keeper and some shady guests all wrapped up in a looming snow storm. If you liked the "TheYard", then the "The Black Country might be a good choice.

Talk about a `blast from the past',but that is actually what I got when I picked up a copy of Clive Cussler's anniversary edition of Mediterranean Caper. Actually, `Iceberg' published in 1975,was my first Cussler novel. After I finished `Iceberg', I went on to the the Mediterranean Caper, I was hooked. Back then, after the release of `Raise The Titanic',if you hadn't heard of Cussler, or read his books, then you most certainly lived in the back of nowhere or close to it. Sitting here 40 years later it is easy to poke holes in the novel and make fun of the characters,but this novel reflected the culture of the 70`s. Cussler rose to the top with authors like John Jakes, James Clavell and made his own niche.He made that niche with an arrogant, chauvinist named Dirk Pitt. In `The Mediterranean Caper', Dirk, along with his faithful sidekick Al Giordino, fly into a US Air Base on the Greek Isle of Thasos at the same moment that it is attacked by a WW1 vintage fighter airplane. Here they hook up with another member of their team, Rudi Gunn. He commands the First Attempt, a NUMA research vessel on the trail of a living fossil. Added to the mix is a beautiful woman and her uncle,the sinister Herr von Till,"a most diabolic and crafty purveyor of human misery".You end up with a classic Cussler mix of drug smugglers, human traffickers, treacherous plots and miraculous escapes.